She's sweet and kind, but that's about all we know about her, and most of the other princesses are like that anyway, with more qualities.

She disobeys an order (which was for her own well-being) and talked to Philip, a stranger. For all she knew, he could have been a rapist or murderer. And Snow White would be my second choice since she kinda has that whole damsel in distress thing but at least she had the guts to run away from home when she knew her step-mother would kill her.

she does what everyone else wants her to

She's very obedient, which is not a bad thing...but she doesn't really stand up for herself or fight for what she really wants...its almost as if she doesn't have a backbone.

I think Aurora is a lovely role model. She's kind, polite, and gives up her love for duty. And I always thought it was smart that she invited the man she loved back to her house, rather than meeting him out in the woods. That being said, it was kinda silly to talk to him when she knew not to talk to strangers.

I don't know if I'll be participating in this countdown, either. I think everyone could see different things in princesses, so ... yeah.

I agree with bubbles4u22.

Just NO DOUBT.
All she did was stupid. Besides, she reached NOTHING. She stayed a mermaid, thanks to her dad, if he didn't save her she would have died. And it was again her dad, who let her become human.
She tried to make her dream true, she made stupid decisions to reach her goal, she was determined in doing stupid things, but she failed in her goal. If not her father, she would be dead.
Wow, great role model.

Well, the thing she can teach little girls are: running away from home for a guy is perfectly fine; you shouldn't care about your family even though your family cares about you; not giving a damn for your friends is something every little girl should do; making deals with evil looking strangers is recommended; and finally (almost) killing your family and friends due to your own general stupidity will make your life complete.

Too spoiled, maybe. She is still my favorite disney princess, Aladdin is my favorite movie, but she is stubborn and not so kind.
Love her anyway. But when I was a child I loved Belle the most.

WOW ppv and BelleAnastasia, Ariel is the WORST rolemodel indeed, there's no good qualities about her what so ever -.-
i'm not gonna participate in those countdowns, and agree with lullaby !

Nyah nyah nyah, Aurora is not as bad as a role model as Ariel is.
I don't think she's selfish, but she's definitely very reckless and pretty stubborn when it comes to her goal or whatever being with Eric was to her.
She's made some really stupid decisions, and if she wasn't so... hmm... what DO I like about Ariel?
...
This can't be possible... I'll get back to you later with at least one reason why she's a good role model... I hope.

She disobeys her aunts and talks to a stranger. Not only does she talk to him she invites him to her home, she doesn't know if he's dangerous or not. There also the fact that she doesn't do anything and just waits for people to do things for her.

I guess by "role model," I mean this: If your daughter/sister/niece, someone younger than you, were to follow this person's example, would you be alright with it? I, personally, would want my child to be more spirited and less passive. Sure, I'd want her to know it's important to be nice and polite, but there are many more important qualities than that that I don't believe Aurora posseesses. That's what I mean by role model, and I agree that there are different things people like in role models. But that's what I want to know from YOU guys. :)

^well then it would better to actually right our own opinions on each and every princess WITHOUT the countdown = no particular order.
it's like if Aurora was last, that means she's the worst rolemodel of them all, and that's not true, we can think of her -like princesslullaby said- totally the oposite of what people are saying, Ariel could be considered as 'recules' or 'chasing her dreams', Belle could be considered as 'doesn't keep her promises' or 'the right thing to do' i mean PLEASE, there are a lot of opinions, and i think there should be an article about this, but not a countdown, i mean why in earth would anyone wants to make this kind of countdowns so everybody can say bad things about the princesses that they hate or don't like, it's getting boring -.-

I understand. Feel free to sit this one out. :) And thanks for your feedback.

^... ^_^

She doesn't really do much to admire lol :)

CuteDiana explained it for me perfectly. From ppv and BelleAnastasia's pov, they see her as stupid and reckless. When I watch the movie, I never see her that way. But they see Belle as a great role model, I see her very differently. So it's hard to make this countdown. I hope you understand I am not trying to be insulting.

I guess Ariel or Aurora

@PL I'm not insulted at all. Rather, I wish you and CuteDiana would provide seperate points of view. Thus, a well rounded article. :) You guys remember that I wrote a thesis on this during my senior year of college, and what I want to do is see what the biggest fans think. I know what all the feminist scholars think; I want to see what YOU GUYS think. :) So it's a countdown, but it's going to be tinged with my own research. So no, I"m not insulted, but I'd like your feedback nonetheless. :)

^What sort of feedback? You mean who we think is the best/worst role models? And what do you mean by seperate points of view, because I think we have the same pov anyway.

i don't even need to explain why... and ariel is, by far, a worse role model than aurora

I mean, if you disagree with Aurora being a bad role model, as others seem to think, tell me why. :) You and CuteDiana could be the opposing points of view, if you have reason to oppose. :) Just to keep things interesting.

@CuteDiana: I never said Ariel doesn't have good qualities. On the contrary, she has some. However here I am trying to weight out the bad vs the good qualities of each princess and based on the outcome to determine which princess is the worst role model in my opinion. And yes, I believe Ariel is the worst role model, because everything she did was out of selfishness and silliness. I mean if one day you have a daughter and she runs away from home with some guy she barely knows, just because she saw her beloved mermaid doing the same, would you be happy with that? Or how would you feel if your daughter is so selfish, that she hardly cares about you?

^Bravo, girl, you said it all.

@BelleAnastasia, now now it's you opinion that Ariel is selfish, a lot of people don't think that, and if my daughter loves her 'beloved mermaid' she'll see the best in her too, like fighting and chasing for her dreams and having her own opinions, and of course i wont like my daughter to be selfish and hardly cares about me, but are you talking about Ariel, because that's not her, you're being biased and putting qualities on Ariel that YOU think that she has and other don't, and in the other hand, i don't want my daughter to break each promise she gives because her 'beloved Belle' did that, like i said, it's more an issue of opinions, and every princess has good things to offer to the girls .

^Brava, girl, you said it all. ;)

@CuteDiana: Are you basically saying in that case that Ariel is not selfish according to you? Because that would mean you are not entirely familiar with the meaning of the word...
And if my daughter really follows Belle's example, at least I'll be happy she loves and cares for her family and friends, unlike Ariel.

@BelleAnastasia, no she is selfish to me, but in a good way, and YES there is a good way in that, she's not THAT selfish as you think of her, i don't want my daughter to be like 'oh my oh my, i'm not gonna go out there and follow my dreams and leave my mom alone, no way, how could i do that, i just can't, i'll stay with her and my friends' no thanks.
and again, Ariel DOES care for her family, she just acted like a typical teenager, and made mistakes, like a HUMAN BEING.

^It does depend on values. I would rather my child go after her dreams and take risks because life is TOO SHORT not to, then be like Belle and not go after dreams because she cares too much for her family and friends. So I would rather my child model herself after Ariel and be ambitious and risky, then Belle...well, what will she model her self after Belle? To be kind? Because then she can model herself after Cinderella/Snow/Aurora almost any princess. To not judge a book by it's cover? Ariel falls in love with a human, she is not exactly judgemental. Obviously we all see different things, you see things in Belle that I don't see. You look at Ariel and see selfish and stupid, I look at Ariel and I don't see that at all, I see someone who goes after her dreams and never gives up. And you really think disney made Ariel so people see her as being stupid and selfish? No! They made her obviously to show GOOD things, like the way I view her, so she is not a bad role model, to me. So this is why this role model countdown is not fair, to me, because it all depends on point of view.

Oh and what's so good about the way how she goes after her dreams??? Did she reach something?

^^I see your point about her not reaching her dreams, she turns back into a mermaid. But I think #1, that's not the point, the point is the journey she takes, and how hard she works, not whether or not she reaches it. Secondly, I think they made her not successful for purely climactic reasons, because if she had just been successful why would there be a final battle? Ursula would just lose easily, and that's no fun. Thirdly, I think it's more significant having Triton change her into a human, because it shows that he has changed too. So to me, that's why they didn't make her kiss him in time. Technically she did reach her dreams, she just didn't kiss him in time.

I for one think that the point is "Guys, love and appreciate your parents, they love you, and they will make your dreams true, because they will sacrifice their lives for you, because of your stupid decisions, and they will help you to be with your beloved ones."
I just hate to see how ungrateful she is to her dad. Okay, time to calm down for me.

@princesslullaby and CuteDiana: I agree that going after your dreams is important. However the things you dream about at 16 are completely different from the things you dream about when you are 20. I would give mt daughter the freedom to choose her own path in life, like university, course, career. When she turns 18 she'll have the chance to choose what she wants to do with her life, because by that time most people get mature and are not as reckless as in their teenage years (and I know people on 18 and 19 are technically still teenagers, but that's the period when they slowly develop into young adults). However I wouldn't allow my 16-year-old daughter to leave her family for a guy she met last night on a party. I wouldn't want to read in the papers how she was brutally murdered or raped by this same guy. But that is just my point of view.

And seriously I can't remember a scene, where she actually shows she cares for her family, with the exception of the last scene. However I see the "I love you, daddy" sentence as quite hypocritical. She would have never said it, if he didn't turn her into human.

^^But I am not looking at it with a realistic point of view, because this is a disney movie. So I don't have those kind of expectations on Ariel. Yeah, yeah, I heard that reasoning so many times, I get it! I'm just trying to explain to you that Disney clearly did not intend it to be viewed that way!

edit: Do you really think disney created ariel saying "let's make a princess who is a terrible rolemodel"
Obviously they don't mean for her to be viewed the way that you are viewing her.

Edit: No, I don't agree about "I love you Daddy", I think she would have said it regardless.

But this is what I mean about this countdown, it depends on your values. You put caring for your family and friends as the highest value, I do not. And there's no concrete rule about what is the best moral.

@ppv- you know, I tried to explain as calmly as possible, and you respond with that, and didn't even comment on anything I said, it's very annoying. And you know, her dad isn't perfect either.

also @ppv, BelleAnastasia, totally unrelated- I wrote comments on the wall about Belle, maybe you can explain my questions for me? They are not this sort of questions where I am saying Belle is bad, they're questions about me trying to understand her actions, and I'm curious. Since you are big fans of Belle, I thought maybe you could explain on there for me.

Sorry, I didn't understand, what is very annoying???
I said that I have to calm dawn and I should not start arguing here. That's it. What does annoy you???

^it's annoying that you ask me a question, i answer it, and you didn't even say anything about my answer, you just blew it off and said something different.

^Hmmm actually it was a reaction on your comment. Last sentences. It's not that different. You know, I can't rewrite each sentence from your comments and comment it. The whole thing is that I disagree. Sorry to annoy you. But you know, I just think I should not comment picks like this, I know it, but always forget. Sorry.

^I agree too, because you know we are not going to change each other's minds xD I was only hoping you could understand my point of view, and how disney meant for her to be viewed. But everyone views things differently.

Soley because she doesn't do anything during her movie.

I just think the others were either fighters, or victims of circumstance.